London, May 29 2025 — Following global attention on the urgent need for biodiversity protection during last week’s Biodiversity Day, the Revenues for Nature (R4N) project announces it will be supporting an initial seven models globally designed to unlock up to $200 million investment into nature restoration and conservation. Through working with partners and governments, R4N, aims to demonstrate the replicability and scaling of models and mechanisms that unlock private sector investment, such as mitigation banking, payments for ecosystem services, commodity supply chain financing and more.
Achieving global nature goals requires an additional $200 billion to be mobilised annually. The private sector plays a crucial role in closing this gap, yet its contribution remains limited. Most nature-related funding currently comes from public sources or philanthropy, while private sector finance is often constrained by a lack of clear revenue models. R4N addresses this challenge by identifying, developing, and supporting revenue-generating models that deliver measurable environmental benefits alongside appealing financial returns.
Launched in March 2024 by the Green Finance Institute with United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) and United Nations Development Programme Biodiversity Finance Initiative (UNDP BIOFIN), R4N identifies and supports models and mechanisms that can be replicated and scaled, offering detailed guidance to investors, businesses, and policymakers on their design and implementation. These efforts are expected to unlock an initial $200 million in investment into nature and support international progress toward Target 19 of the Global Biodiversity Framework.
R4N is proud to announce support for its inaugural cohort of partners and initiatives:
- Replicating and scaling Landscape Enterprise Networks (LENs) across Europe with 3Keel
- Understanding the replicability of Habitat and Mitigation Banking in Central America with Environmental Policy Innovation Center (EPIC)
- Scaling the Living Amazon Mechanism across Brazil
- Adapting the Rimba Collective model for the fashion and textile industry with Lestari Capital
- Scaling up a Payments for Ecosystem Services programme in Sri Lanka and Colombia
- Replicating a Fisheries Improvement Fund for small-scale fisheries in the Maldives with Finance Earth
R4N supports the partners above to develop delivery plans for their expansion, which include landscape and policy analysis, demand and supply preparation, pilot development, capacity funding needs and financial structuring. By unlocking private sector through scalable, replicable revenue-driven models, the R4N project is charting a path toward a sustainable and financeable future for nature.
“Across the globe, successful models are already unlocking investment from multinational and regional businesses into nature restoration and nature-based solutions. By championing these pioneering models and approaches – scaling their impact, replicating their success, and sharing lessons learned where relevant – we will be able to accelerate progress towards closing the nature finance gap.” Helen Avery, Nature Director at the Green Finance Institute
“The Revenues for Nature (R4N) Programme is providing invaluable support to LENs, enabling us to move from existing heartlands and start to ‘take root’ in new locations. This extends our ability for impact and landscape transformation; engaging private interests to spend money on building resilience in two differently challenged landscapes. It also helps us to further systematise and codify the way in which LENs works, with partners, when it enters new territories.” Tom Curtis, LENs Co-creator and Founding Director, 3Keel
“Nature markets are still nascent, yet they are essential for unlocking scalable finance for conservation and restoration. Innovative models like the Rimba Collective show that it is possible to couple natural capital protection with business imperatives. They also highlight the crucial role of blended finance in developing these markets. We are grateful to R4N for their support in scaling our approach across industries, ensuring greater value flows towards protecting vital ecosystems, safeguarding communities’ livelihoods and enhancing supply chain resilience.” Michal Zrust, Founder and CEO, Lestari Capital
“The Fisheries Improvement Fund (FIF) was established to mobilise private capital to reverse the global trend of fisheries decline, while improving the health of the ecosystems on which they depend and ensuring the hundreds of millions of people around the world that depend on fisheries for their food security, livelihoods and economic benefits can thrive. The funding from R4N will enable us to explore how the FIF can support the Maldivian tuna fishery to maintain its status as one of the most sustainable in the world, while exploring ways to deliver wider economic benefits and decarbonisation of the overall sector. Adapting the FIF’s approach to the specific local country context and needs of stakeholders across the fishing sector in the Maldives is critical to delivering real impact on the water.” Elizabeth Beall, Managing Director, Finance Earth
“Already, we know that habitat banking is a successful structure to use private capital to create real outcomes for nature. New, collaborative efforts through R4N are an essential step to adapt this ecological compensation approach in new geographies and further scale investment in nature.” Timothy Male, Executive Director, Environmental Policy Innovation Center
“As the planet faces accelerating species loss and landscape degradation, we need a rapid-deployment platform to channel capital into nature-positive ventures. Revenues for Nature scales proven, locally rooted revenue models within existing market and regulatory frameworks, structuring investment vehicles that deliver risk-adjusted returns while conserving and restoring forests, wetlands, peatlands, and reefs. By scaling these models, we unlock diversified and inclusive revenue streams that bolster community resilience and enhance portfolio performance.” Eric Usher, Head of the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative.
“Unlocking nature markets is a critical step toward mobilizing the scale of finance required to meet global biodiversity goals. Yet the private sector does not operate in isolation; its engagement is deeply influenced by the broader enabling environment, which varies considerably across countries. Effective strategies must therefore be context-specific, grounded in local regulatory frameworks, institutional capacity, and market readiness. Through this partnership, we aim to identify, incubate, and scale finance solutions that are fit-for-purpose—beginning with Payment for Ecosystem Services initiatives in Colombia and Sri Lanka,” Onno van den Heuvel, Global Nature Finance Lead at UNDP